I personally doubted that Windows 7 would make an actual appearance during the Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer joint interview up on stage at the D6 conference, but as it turns out, it has made an appearance. During an interview conducted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about Ballmer and Gates' past, present, and future, a short demo was given of Windows 7.

With the state of current ( read: bleeding-edge) technology, it is possible to create the sensation of a standard keyboard using a flexible gel-filled display.

In fact we can even dynamically alter the perceptive feel of travel, resistance, and texture. Not sure if it has been actually implemented in any given product as of yet, but the technology is there.

I envision a dynamic task-re-orienting multi-touch interface which will replace keyboards and mice in the future ( read 5-10 years, sooner if certain people read my posts :-) ). The display will modify itself with each application one is using, and with many various tasks within any given application.

Looking at where you type will become common, though, which has its own ramifications.

Pressurized gel in a matrix will enable programmability via a 3D matrix.

color is obvious, pressure states how much pressure to
apply to given pixel grid gel( 0 to 1 ), gradient_to_neighbors is utilized to normalize pressure resolutions with display resolutions, and pressure_response determines the response characteristics for tactile simulation.

You will have one inflatable gel section per every X pixel FORMATION ( squares aren't best here ), and each will respond based upon software parameters with specialized hardware doing the heavy-lifting.

It may also be possible, with current technology, to provide pulse-feedback, though reliability must be factored with extra consideration due to the rather immature nature of certain nano-technologies which would be required for this to work properly.

Lastly, the topmost layers would be a nano-coating capable of keeping the surface clean and clear, while also being able to provide feedback upon input. I.E. the coating would "sense, tense, and rinse."